Recent reports have focused on the issue of ‘stay put’ guidance at the Grenfell Tower fire, with London Fire Commissioner Andy Roe saying that residents were asked “to stay put for too long”.
In a statement, the Fire Brigades Union has said that while it is “right that stay put is reviewed for situations like Grenfell”, the fire “was a crime caused by deregulation and institutional failings at the highest level.”
FBU general secretary Matt Wrack said that firefighters attending Grenfell “were forced to work under impossible conditions, lacking appropriate preparation, planning and training”.
The union cites a number of examples of when its warnings on building safety and evacuation preparation were ignored.
Matt Wrack, Fire Brigades Union general secretary, said:
The Fire Brigades Union called for a review of ‘stay put’ in 2007 in a report into a 2005 fire in Harrow Court in Stevenage, in which two firefighters and one resident were killed. These warnings were not heeded. This has been the story on far too many occasions.
The Grenfell Tower fire was a crime caused by deregulation and institutional failings at the highest level. By the time of the fire, the residents of the tower had warned on multiple occasions that their building was unsafe.
There were various warnings over many years about the dangers of cladding fires, including from the Fire Brigades Union. There had already been fatalities, including at Garnock Court in 1999 and Lakanal House in 2009. It is a national scandal that our warnings were ignored.
These failings do not rest with front line firefighters. For years, Chief Fire Officers failed to pass on vital knowledge to front line firefighters. Despite obvious warnings, they failed to prepare firefighters for compartmentation breaking down because of flammable cladding.
Firefighters at Grenfell were forced to work under impossible conditions, lacking appropriate preparation, planning and training. These high level failings of policy continue to this day.
It is right that stay put is reviewed for situations like Grenfell. But we must ask why flammable cladding is still wrapped around the homes of hundreds of thousands of people and why there are other significant fire safety failings on many buildings across the country.
The government has still not produced proper guidance on how to evacuate a high-rise tower in the middle of a fire, despite having had years to do so. We highlighted this in a letter to the Home Secretary in March this year.
The FBU will not rest until we achieve justice for all victims of the fire and until everyone has a safe and decent home.”
A copy of the FBU’s correspondence to the (then-) Home Secretary can be viewed here: https://www.fbu.org.uk/sites/default/files/circulars/attachments/20240301%20-%20Letter%20to%20Home%20Secretary%20-%20Evacuation%20guidelines%20and%20research.pdf
